In a never-ending search to bring the best that modern design has to offer, Design Limited Edition recognizes the most iconic names in the industry, the ones that throughout history reinvented themselves and to this day, have a lasting place in contemporary design. One of those names? Alessandro Mendini.

Born in Milan in 1931, Alessandro Mendini was a famous and innovative architect, artist, designer, theorist, journalist and one of the best product designers in the world. Recognized as a creative, iconic and clever mind who built some of the most remarkable modern furniture and unique design pieces.

For the top product designer, the key element was always a clever hybrid between modern art and unique design resulting in popular objects that achieve great commercial success. Alessandro Mendini changed the landscape of modern design through his quintessential works of postmodernism.

Through his involvement with Studio Alchimia, the Italian artist drove the concept of Banal Design, discovering an insistently vulgar and eccentricity style as an active way for disrupting notions of value, function, taste, and style to inspire individual thinking.

His works express human values and sensibilities. During his career, Alessandro Mendinicontributed to bringing into the heart of design those “values” and “sensibilities” that have been eclipsed by commercialism and functionalism.

Alessandro Mendini was a member of the Domus Academy and of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI), received the Compasso d’Oro of design in 1979 and in 1981, and was an honorary member of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the artist was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, received the honour of the Architectural League of New York, the honorary degree at the Polytechnic of Milan, and the European Prize for Architecture Awards in 2014. He died on 18 February 2019.

“I treat objects as if they were human beings; I make them smile.” – Alessandro Mendini